of feminism

If you would have asked me a year ago if I was a feminist I would have probable said NO. It hadn’t crossed my mind what I believe in and feel very passionate about is actually a thing. If felt great knowing I wasn’t the only one fighting this in my own small world.

I really wasn’t planning to write about this. But I cant just keep quiet. We have seen women being stripped naked because of the clothes they are wearing. It honestly doesn’t make the situation better. If she was so badly dressed and it really bothered you why not cover her up? This is a violent act and it’s so offensive I haven’t brought myself to watching the videos. I am afraid I might weep or just raise my blood pressure.

I am a feminist. My boyfriend is worried he might see me on the news protesting something but I know he only worries for my safety. I grew up with two brothers. Life for me as a kid wasn’t defined as “girl and boy do different things”. That only started as I grew closer to that age where boobs start to pop out. I wasn’t for it….the change in behavior. I wanted to do the same things by brother would. I had the capacity to anyway. climb trees, race, get dirty…but it wasn’t what girls did.

I picked a career that excited me. A career where 80% or more of my colleagues have been men. I love technology. And I have had to fight to be looked at as a colleague and not a woman. Now we fight over discrimination and violence. When did this get to violence? Sometimes I wish men would be women for a day. See how we are teased, looked at like objects, how most of us were sexually abused growing up, sexually harassed at work….just because we are women.

I want a world where we do not discriminate. Everyone should be given an equal opportunity. Men are great cooks, women are great leaders…either one can do another. It starts with us. I cannot wait to be a mother and teach my children what I only learnt the hard way.

Let us protect our women, stop violence against women.

of our man made differences

Most of us are born into religion not by choice, by what our parents practice. Very few of us ever consider anything else…its always painted like the worst thing ever. So we never bother to understand, we stand at our corners quiet with our one sided pool of information.

I met some friends over 3 years ago who I got to watch for basically one year. They have this way they live. They greet each other with kind words in the morning, have lunch together and even live together. They are a bit inseparable. I was a bit envious and I questioned what was this thing that made them so close. My friends are from India. Before, I would have been scared being anywhere near a shrine, but after meeting them, it didn’t scare me as much. I asked questions, what their holidays meant, why some were vegetarians…and even got into the habit of using words like namaste and bhai. My Indian friends taught me not to judge too quickly. They were kind to me and even kinder to each other. I was left questioning a lot of the information I previously had.And I understand now, holiness is in right action.

I fail to understand the kind of cruelty that comes with religious discrimination. Why killing is justified. Why one does not have a choice to chose their religion. Why death can be the solution for that change. Why women are treated like possessions, mutilated, not allowed to speak for themselves, even denied basic education. It beats the point if it is all for religion. I wish there was only one, maybe the millions of people who have lost their lives over it may still be with us.

We went wrong somewhere. Separating by skin color, by race, by religion. We went wrong and it might destroy us.

To simmer on:

I loved watching Kingdom of Heaven and this I had to rewind:

I love this quote the Gmoney says in the morning.

“I love you my brother whoever you are whether you worship in your church, kneel in your temple, or pray in your mosque.You and I are all children of one faith, for the diverse paths of religion are fingers of the loving hand of one Supreme Being, a hand extended to all, offering completeness of spirit to all, eager to receive all.” Kahlil Gibran